Navigon 7200T November 12th, 2008 | by Nick Mokey
Full Review - Testing and Conclusion
Navigation Experience Voice Commands and Speaker Quality Entering destinations by voice, while a novel option, isn’t quite fluid enough to use on a day-to-day basis. The unit did a respectable job interpreting addresses, but the prompts to enter different bits of data are spaced so far apart, it takes nearly twice as long to enter them versus typing. And in the event the system gets one wrong, which isn’t rare, editing the information vocally is like walking your grandma through checking her e-mail. Bottom line: Dealing with a finicky voice system might be more distracting than simply keying in a few details at a traffic light, or pulling over for 20 seconds. Reality View Pro Bluetooth
Though the 7200T’s initial start-up seems to drag by, putting it into standby instead of powering it off will skip the lengthy boot up process, so you shouldn’t have to deal with it often if you can keep the unit charged between starts. The SirfStarInstantFix II chip inside did a respectable job fixing its location quickly when in full view of many satellites, but took over two minutes with a lower signal, so results will certainly vary.
We liked the look of Navigon’s interface: It’s clean, modern, and the dark theme matches the rest of the unit very well. Maps look smoothed and anti-aliased, and Navigon’s visual niceties like store icons that crop up on the map along your route really lend it a refined feel. But performing different functions with it isn’t as intuitive as we’ve come to expect.
Say you’re looking for a Safeway supermarket near you. Rather than being able to click a destination button and immediately plugging in the name, Navigon will first prompt you for whether you want to find one near you, in a city, or in a state. Fine, one click. Next, it will ask for a category. Another click. Expecting a keyboard and an entry window? Not so fast. You get a list of nearby locations sorted by distance away from you. If you want to search for one, you’ll need to click yet again on a less-than-obvious button that looks like a document. When the keyboard finally does come up, it will grey out keys as you enter a word if it doesn’t have an item in the library with that combination of letters. While this makes sense, it’s also distracting to type on a constantly shifting keyboard. Even after adjusting to the rigmarole, we found ourselves yearning for the simpler input systems of other GPS units when looking for destinations. On the up side, though, Navigon does provide a comprehensive set of POIs, and we liked having extra information, such as ZAGAT ratings, available for certain destinations.
The unit’s text-to-speech system, as expected, performed inconsistently. While it occasionally surprised us by pronouncing complex street names properly, it would commonly butcher easier items, like pronouncing “avenue” closer to “avernue.” For the most part, though, it succeeds in allowing drivers to keep their eyes on the road instead of reading street names off the unit, even if it does take some interpretation.
The speaker on the Navigon performed as poorly as the ultra-budget Nextar I4-BC, which is to say that passengers will be begging for mercy as the computer’s robotic voice shrieks out crackly instructions every time you turn. Not a good sign for a $500 navigator.
We loved the idea of having 3D landmarks to navigate by, but Navigon disappointed us with an exceptionally sparse scattering of buildings in our own fair city of Portland. Demo drives of Seattle and Chicago weren’t much better, though, and oddly enough, in Manhattan, none showed up at all.
Reality View Pro initially impressed us with its renderings of a handful of highway splits and merges, but our enthusiasm faded after watching it illustrate some terribly confusing directions. At one point, for instance, the highway widened by one lane on the right for trucks. The 7200T not only mysteriously demanded that we use the truck lane, it also illustrated the “junction” as an exit ramp we were supposed to take, when in fact all we had to do was move over a lane.
Since we didn’t have to sign up for anything or enter any activation codes to get traffic data, and the 7200T’s antenna is built right into its charger cable, it was by far the easiest GPS we’ve used to get traffic updates with. Right out of the box, clicking on the “Traffic” button will reliably bring up a list of traffic events when connected to the charger. We still managed to get wedged in traffic without the unit knowing or alerting us, though, and the interface for displaying traffic leaves much to the imagination. It’s nowhere near what you would get from the Dash Express, for example, which actually colors roads based on traffic, rather than dotting the map with vague indicators. 
Image Courtesy of Navigon
Though we regularly find devices that are so painful to use with Bluetooth that we would never actually use them in day-to-day life due to the hassle, the 7200T must be the first that was so bad we were literally unable to get it to work once, after attempting with three different phones. It paired, exchanged phonebooks and even accepted calls, but never produced any audio, transmitted any audio, or allowed us to dial out from it. Even the basic pairing turned out to be a buggy process: after doing it once, retrying would spit out an error message instructing us to turn on Bluetooth under settings, even though it was already on. We had to turn it off and on again manually to get it to pair, every single time. Despite several rereads of the manual and hours wasted trying, we’re declaring Bluetooth nonfunctional on this device. Scratch it off the feature list because it doesn’t work.
Conclusion
Navigon has made a valiant effort to produce a navigator that will roll with the big boys in the high-end category, but it falls well short of King of The Hill when compared to established competitors. We could give the 7200T more credit if it managed to execute the features listed on the box with some gusto, but with a speaker that sounds like a Fisher-Price See ‘n Say, a “reality view” mode that tells you to take phantom exits, and Bluetooth that just plain doesn’t work, it’s clear the final product needs some refinement. We do give Navigon credit for its forward-thinking free traffic program, though, and the physical fit and finish of the unit.
Pros:
• Attractive interface and styling
• Robust POI database
• Very solid window mount
• Quick, accurate GPS performance
• Free traffic updates
Cons:
• Nonfunctional Bluetooth
• Unintuitive destination entry
• Poor speaker performance
• Reality View Pro misleading
by Mark on November 8, 2009:
“I recently purchased the 7200T over the Garmin Nuvi 765T and Magellan 4350. While both competitors has some interesting points, I found after extensive research that, feature for feature, the 7200t was the best value. At almost $175 cheaper than the next,...” More...